I made them straight up, with just sprinkles, partly because I was in a hurry and partly because I wanted to compare the taste to my other favorite sugar cookie recipes. They are really good, but with all that butter they get soft almost immediately. I had to re-chill them repeatedly.

Mine turned out great too. I topped them with melted white & dark chocolate and dusted with crushed candy canes. The dough is really soft even after refrigerating overnight, so I’d recommend freezing it.

I think I’ll have to resist the temptation to add more flour! TWDers, is this what should be done? I added loads of flour to my snowflake cookies – they got good reviews but inwardly I was feeling very guilty. The only honest joe with a very sharp tongue was my bro “these are so floury”. Sheesh!

My dough wasn’t overly soft. After a couple of hours in the fridge it was hard and easily sliced. I was very careful not to over mix the dough, like Dorie mentioned, stopping before all the flour was incorporated and mixing the rest with a rubber scraper.
The orange cream cheese frosting was actually left over from a cake I made a week ago.
Orange Cream Cheese Frosting
5 oz cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 stick of butter, at room temperature
8 ounces of powdered sugar; sifted
1. In a large mixing bowl, beat together the cream cheese and butter until fluffy. Slowly add the powdered sugar to cream cheese butter mixture. Making sure to scrape down the sides the sides of the bowl. Then beat until light fluffy 2-3 minutes.
then add:
3 tablespoons of frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1/4- 1/2 teaspoon of orange extract Stir together all the ingredients until well mixed.

I made a half recipe, rolled it into a cylinder, and after it chilled, I rolled the entire roll in red and green sugar. Sliced them up, and they baked perfectly. The kids thought I bought them (as if!).

I’m planning on making mine today or tomorrow. I’m pretty excited about these because there is just so much room for creativity! I may have to do multiple small batches because I just can’t decide what I want to do.
I think I’d like to experiment with a chocolate version of the dough (that shouldn’t surprise anyone :) ) and some with a bit of spice in them, and some traditional, and maybe some with caramel in place of vanilla and – well, the list keeps going so I’ll have to try to narrow that down before I get started!

I’m loving some of the variations everyone has already tried, you’ve definitely given me some food for thought and ideas for tweaking the tweaks I already had in mind :)

Megan, I love your idea! I usually make cutouts with my kids at Christmastime, but I don’t know if I’m up for all of that this weekend. I love your slice-and-bake version with the sprinkles on the outside! I may have to steal your idea.

I just finished mine – it’s summer here in Buenos Aires so I tried to make this a little fresh – I added 1/3 cup of shredded coconut to the flour mixture and made a lemon icing according to the book. I think I could sit at home and eat the whole entire batch.

I made a half batch just wanting to test-drive this recipe before I do my “real” cookie baking. I think my logs were too darn skinny cuz my poor cookies are like bite-sized crackers! hahahaha You’ll have to see my blog post to really appreciate their diminutive size.

Bria, it depends on the recipe and how thick/thin you make them. Thinner will be crispy, thicker will be slightly chewy/soft. Dorie’s recipe seems to be on the softer side IMO but some of mine came put more crispy since some were a tad thin.

I plan to make these tomorrow and send them to work with my husband on Tuesday. I plan to pair them on a tray with the Linzer Sables that I didn’t get a chance to make last week. I’m trying to keep up…..the suggestions are all so wonderful, but my husband might divorce me if I didn’t make the basic sugar cookies that he loves so much!

I don’t have a blog, but am hoping I can join in…in any case I plan to bake along with the group. I made the sugar cookies last night and found that my first pan was a little underdone. I liked them with just a touch of brown on the edges. I thought they were great with just the sugar and spice on top.

Mine are in the freezer now. I’m going to slice them so I want to be sure they are good and hard before I get to slicing. I’m not sure how Dorie gets 50 out of this recipe. From looking at my dough, I know there is no way I’ll be getting 50. I guess I’ll find out later.

My dough firmed up quite nicely, but I did pop the scraps in the fridge in between re-rolling. This won’t replace my great grandma’s recipe though – too crispy, not cakey enough for me. They’re good for decorating though, which I’ll get around to tomorrow :)

I made my cookies this afternoon. Another keeper from Dorie! It probably won’t replace the sugar cookie recipe that I already use b/c I like my cookies a little softer/chewier but it came together really easily and I had an awesome time decorating with some royal icing and my new Ateco coloring gel! Can’t wait to see what everyone else did!
/Clara

I loved these. I cut mine thicker than Dorie suggested as I really like chewy sugar cookies, not crisp ones. They were wonderful. No way I got 50 LOL I did some slice and bake, some with cutters and the rest with my cookie scoop, then rolled in sugar. Yum!

My cookies turned out great. I went for the slice and bake method, but I hadn’t read the instructions all the way and I didn’t have time to chill in the fridge for 2 hours….so I put them in the freezer for about 30-40 min. It worked well. The dough wasn’t frozen through and still was easily sliceable. I didn’t have to re-chill while I was cutting either. I also cut most of them a little thick-ish, the ones I did pretty thin ended up breaking when I was getting them off the pan…so I would tend more to the thick side of things when you slice these.

I made 1/2 of the batch yesterday as slice and bake. They were really crumbly. They looked and tasted a little too much like store bought sugar cookie dough. I liked them but I prefer a more cakey, soft sugar cookie. I did the first half plain so I may play with the second half left in the fridge tonight to get something less store bought feeling.

I have to admit I used flour…but I use Fleishman’s Lactose Free Margarine and I do not find that refridgeration really helps it much…it’s always kind of soft. This way we can share with our son who is lactose intolerant. The kids had a great time making and decorating these! I am very happy with December’s selections! And I am excited to have this one done on time!!!

I made mine this weekend and thought it went together really nicely. We added a little bit of really good almond extract to the dough, as well as some grated chocolate and rolled the dough into two logs. After I chilled the dough for a couple hours I rolled it in some ground almonds and then sliced them into cute little rounds and sprinkled them with some raw sugar and baked them up. These cookies were easy and are awesome. I may try them again soon as cutouts as well.

Okay. I made these today. I put them in the freezer to make sure they were nice and firm to roll out and use cookie cutters. I managed to get them all on the cookie sheet in cute ice skate shapes, but when I baked them, they spread out and got misshapen. I feel like maybe my dough was too soft. Not sure what I did wrong. I made the rest of them with a circle cookie cutter. Don’t get me wrong, they were delicious, but for whatever reason, mine were not good to roll out for cookie cutter shapes. :(

Has anyone besides Michele had problems with cookie cutter shapes? I am making anatomically correct snowmen for my girlfriends & hope they hold their shape. (I’m using jelly beans for the anatomy thingy)

These are great tasting cookies, but I’m glad I did the slice method. I don’t know if there’s any way to roll these out without adding a bit more flour. They do spread a whole lot, too. I can’t imagine they’d keep any shape at all if you roll them out and use cookie cutters.

I divided mine in half and made two different kinds, froze the dough logs, and then rolled them in raw sugar before I sliced them.

Very good, but maybe there’s a better recipe out there? They don’t remind me of the sugar cookies I’m used to making at all. They are more like regular butter cookies. Not that I’m complaining. We’ve already eaten half of them. :)

Hi all–I used cookie cutters for part and sliced the other part. Here’s what I did: I pulled the dough out of the freezer then rolled it out. I stuck it back in the freezer for 10-15 minutes and then cut out the shapes. Then, I placed the cut out cookies back in the freezer for another 10-15 minutes before popping them in the oven. They held their shape beautifully–and I made tiny trees and snowflakes, and they didn’t spread at all. I really think the key is to keep the dough cold–similar to pie crust:)

I made the dough on Sunday night, and baked them Monday night after work. No problems, they came out fine. I got maybe 25 instead of the 50 2-inch cookies the recipe said. But what I realized…these are not my Nana’s sugar cookies, they are the sugar cookies of someone else’s Grandma. That is ok, but it made me realize that they can’t take the place of the ones my Nana used to make. Needless to say this was a bit of a trip down memory lane at the oven tonight!

You can purchase little sampler bottles of alcohol which should have enough in it for your baking needs. I forget what exactly the bottles are called. They are very small and could fit in your hand and are inexpensive.

I made the dough for this today and it could NOT have been easier! I’m baking them tonight, I was supposed to do this a few days ago, but, well, I ran out of time! The raw dough is really good. (WARNING: The buttery jam cookie dough is REALLY REALLY good!!!!! Just letting you all know beforehand!!!!!)

Kimberly, you could just leave out the Scotch. I bet the puddings will still taste great.

I haven’t posted since the Two-fer pie — busy busy! I was lucky enough to have Sunday off and get snowed (well, iced) in on Monday night so I now have a lot of cookie dough in the freezer and fridge. I’ve already baked up a batch of Lenox Almond Biscotti, flavored with lemon and candied ginger. My family is going to get home-baked cookies for this Christmas!

I still need a chocolate-y cookie and a spicey cookie to include in my gift assortment — preferably a no-nuts or nuts-optional recipe as my brother can’t eat them. And they have to travel well, because my family is spread out all over the USA. Any suggestions?

Thanks for all the tips! I made mine today and Im about to put them in the oven. Cant wait to see how they compare. My dough turned out fine. I put it in parchment and rolled it out before I put it in the fridge to help. Seemed to work. Im hoping keeping them thick will help them to be softer – Im not a fan of crispy cookies

Barbara, Dorie’s World Peace cookie is a GREAT chocolate-y cookie, and would be sturdy for travel. Prudy posted some great spicy molasses cookies in October that I’ve made a couple of times. They also travel well.